tomazbodner

No, I was making a Thai driver's license for the first time. To avoid having to do theoretical and practical exam, I handed over my country driver's license but they would not accept it without IDP. So I needed to get IDP made back home in 2019, then come back with both driver's license and IDP (basically translation). At the time IDP was being made for me, I was told it's only valid for 1 year as per rules at that time, but I now learned that last year that's been extended to 3 years for signatories of that 1969 agreement.

Where are you watching? From DLT E-Learning site, the video in Thai that a man is talking the whole hour in 4 15-minute chunks, or something else for foreigners? This is how my video looked like: I've done it on Thai site, and the video stopped with a quiz that you had to answer within 3 minutes before it would allow you to proceed, looking like this: Not sure if you're seeing the same thing. Maybe post a screenshot and let us know where you're watching it? PS: When I renewed license 2 weeks back, nobody even wanted to see that confirmation that I've done the training... at Chatuchak DLT. Not sure that's needed at all, but still good to do it up-front or risk having to sit in for 2 hours watching them there.

Sometimes not true. While I applied at Bang Chak 2 years ago (and had no problem), when I went there on Sep 1 this year, they told me my address is in different area and I have to go to Chatuchak. So, same office, different answers. As such for your quote above, I'd say "it depends on office policy which can change at any time". That said - the officer at Bang Chak was very friendly, even went to find me the phone number of someone at Chatuchak and told me how to get there.

Just as a list, in case it's needed by anyone in the future... https://educatebox.com/dvla-international-driving-permit-countries-1949-1968-idp/ Some interesting details in it.

Thank you for this information, I wasn't aware of the change, much appreciated. Curious now why Australia's NWS government isn't aware of it and still only issue 1 year IDP...

That is what I was told by the person making me the international driver's license a couple of years back. There are 2 books, that on the outside look identical. The lady had to look up which one of them Thailand allows, as there are 1 year and 2? 3? years versions. Both are gray folded paper (or rather were for my license, anyway). She said Thailand only accepts one year - so she picked that one, which had translation in Thai in that papers stapled in the middle. Just checked this from Australia: An IDP is sometimes referred to as an international driving licence and is valid for 12 months. https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-online-international-driving-permit-idp Now that you say this is Bull S - please provide your evidence to the contrary.

DLT Chatuchak told me 3 months before expiration. But that's maybe for them, other offices might be different as in some you need to wait your queue for over 3 months. Would it be 3.5 years early? I very much doubt it.

I did it as PR so just my pink ID, tabien baan, blue PR booklet and red police booklet were needed from those types of documents. Others can add more on what a foreigner with permanent address abroad requires. You will however need your home country driver's license and international driver's license from that country (the translation of it, basically. Thailand recognises only 1 year international driver's licenses). You would need a health certificate from a clinic or hospital (just mention you need it for driver's license and they'll know what to do). It is only valid 30 days. Go to DLT Chatuchak, building 4. It's the 2nd building on the right side as you get in, which has the car testing area just behind it. Once you get in, on ground floor to the right are the counters. There are 2 separate queues for foreigners. Bring documents for verification. The officer will check them and if all is in order, give you a queue 2-3 weeks in advance. They accept about 15-20 foreigners per day. You return on date and time of appointment to same counter, and you'll be sent to floor 2 - to get a queue. As you walk up, follow lines on the floor. There you'll get a queue number and go into the waiting area. There, your documents will be checked, you'll fill out and sign some forms, and be sent to floor 3, where you'll hand over the papers and get another queue ticket. There you'll see a video alternating in Thai/English on what to expect from a physical fitness test. They call about 20 at the same time and put in line, based on queue numbers. First you'll see a traffic light with changing lights at random locations/random colours, and you have to call out the colour of the light. Then a distance awareness or how to call it... there is a box about 1.5-2 m away that has 2 sticks in it. One is fixed and you need to use forward/backward buttons to move the other one so that they are next to each other - at same distance. Then it's reflex test, where you sit down and have 2 pedals like gas and brake. When you see green light, you push the right one, and when light turns to red, you slam the brakes, which you have to do within 0.75s to pass. Finally it's that 150 degree test, where you put head on the plate and tell what light colors you can see on the side. That done, and all passed, back to floor 2, where your 2 year Temporary driver's license will be issued after they take your photo just there. When 2 years are up, or up to 3 months before that, you go back and do same procedure as above, just that at that time you only show your temporary driver's license from Thailand instead of your home country and international one (all other documents are same), and at that time you'll get a 5 year license, which gets renewed in the same way. You could do it elsewhere, but DLT at Chatuchak is a lot faster with queues than some others. I originally went to Bang Chak and got queue for January 2023, but Chatuchak gave me queue 2 weeks later, which was mid September. Overall, it's not difficult, but you'll need to speak some Thai or you'll have challenges on floors 2 and 3. Ground floor reception speaks English, but on higher floors where licenses are issued and where tests are done... not really. I saw most foreigners there with a Thai with them to translate. I guess calling out colours on floor 3 could be done in English as well... Hope this helps a bit. EDIT: forgot to mention: 2 year temporary license lasts 2 years from date of issue. The 5 year license expires on your first birthday after 5 years from issue of license.

Only 301k? I would have expected red shirted candidate would have gotten at least half a million votes. That's really bad if over 200k people voted former Prayuth band mates... In ROIET, the Thaksin heartland.

Yes, and stop reporting all those road fatalities so driving is safe again.

Why would you not just apply for a visa to remove all this uncertainty and hassle?

That is quite hard to believe. Every router 3BB had in past 10 years supports 5GHz, although it is possible to turn that off in settings - in Wifi settings in router you need to enable 5GHz and create another network (give it a name and password... say same as your other Wifi but add 5G at the end or something) and choose channel - the lower channels have longer range, but are more popular and hence could have more interference, if you live in a condo. You can download a free app "Wifi analyzer" for your phone (there is one for Android, never checked for iPhone), and if your phone supports 5GHz, you can see both 2.4 and 5GHz networks on a graph, so you can select channel that has nothing else, as low as possible. Else if router is really old, complain to 3BB that router is unstable and loses Wifi many times in the day (which you know because all your devices tell you that there is no internet at the same time), and ask for a new one. You can't prove that, but neither can they, so to keep customer they'd likely give you a new one.

Qualcomm QCA9377 supports 5GHz AC mode: https://www.qualcomm.com/products/technology/wi-fi/qca9377 but only about 4xx mbps. Click on Preferred Band and choose 5GHz, and Wireless Mode choose 802.11ac, as per your screenshot. Hope that shows 5G networks when searching for them.

If you search for "Device manager" (without quotes) in Windows, it should open up a window with all the hardware bits and pieces of your computer. Scroll down to Network Adapters and expand that (click on > at the front of the icon). Locate any network card that has the word "Wireless" in it... in my case on one of laptops that is "Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265". Now this is because Wifi adapter is part of the Intel Core processors, but yours will most likely have some Realtek or alike separate adapter. The clue in the name above is "Dual Band", which is 2.4+5 GHz as well as AC (so it works in Wifi 5 - AC standard). Older adapters that are N (Wifi 4) won't work as fast as AC (which is likely what your 3BB router supports), but should still support both 2.4 and 5GHz however on early N adapters, 5 GHz wasn't mandatory. It will most likely have Dual Band in the name if it supports both. If you double click your Wireless adapter in there, and click on Advanced tab, you should see something about standards that the adapter supports. It should look something like this: If there is no 5GHz listed, it is likely not supported. Last attempt - scan for networks. Install Wifi Analyzer (free) tool to your phone, and display networks (assuming your phone supports 5G). You can switch between 2.4 and 5GHz at the top left corner. See networks your phone (or another computer) finds that are 5GHz. Then check through the list of networks on your computer. If there is not a single 5GHz network listed, then your computer's wifi card doesn't support 5 GHz.

Fearing CPU could have something to do with it... Checked the actual benchmarks of that AMD A9 processor and it's about same speed as first Core 2 Duo processors from 10 years ago. Maybe that in combination with a network card that offsets lots of processing to CPU could bring the limit to what bandwidth the computer as a whole can handle. And if you see 5G network on your son's computer but not your computer, it might be that your Wifi card is a single band 2.4 GHz adapter. That was seen on some budget computers from 2016-2020... usually computers that only had a number in the name, but not a series name printed on them... Here's comparison of A9 processor with prehistoric Intel Core2Duo (that's even before first i3/i5/i7 processors), which is still 2% faster than AMD A9-9425: Comparing it with processors of today, the difference is quite significant, with i5 being 208% faster and i7 performing 233% faster. i5 is generally a mid-range processor, while i7 and i9 are high end workstation processors: As such there might not be so much you can do about it. The good part is that 300 mbps is plenty, but the bad part of course is that you're paying for something you can't use fully.

The SAIC factory is about an hour drive out of Shanghai and I actually visited it now probably 10-15 years ago... That... was amazing. I mean you might think of a dirty place like some Eastern European car factories were... but this place was clean like a hospital inside, all was white, and it was full of darn robots everywhere. All spraying was done by robots. Each car was custom made. There were these small robots with carts running all over the place... OK, and town built around factory had one foreign restaurant - KFC. And it was best KFC I ever had. But the real jewel was the man making noodles inside factory canteen... he'd cut the dough then stretch and fold it and stretch again, repeating it a while before throwing it in soup to cook it. There was always a line of people waiting for him... Anyway - what I wanted to say is that SAIC factory is ultra modern, workers seem well taken care of, and seem happy. That's a good way towards producing quality products that were designed in Germany, US and UK anyway. Quality usually suffer when you have it assembled by angry, underpaid staff... Or if it's a Tesla... https://www.powernationtv.com/post/guy-leaves-his-tesla-in-a-garage-for-a-month-returns-to-find-interior-covered-in-mold I guess this is what quality looks like for our dear OP?

So network card is surely using gigabit, else it would be limited to below 100 mbps, and yours is 150/350. What are you testing against? 3BB server locally or something overseas? What is the spec of the computer? Is it like a Pentium or Athlon processor, or is it Core i3/5/7/9 or Ryzen 3/5/7/9 processor? Sometimes processor of the computer is also slowing things down, as could insufficient memory, if something else is loaded. Your Wifi is also very low. Is it supporting AC standard? AC (Wifi 5) on 5 GHz should go to about 600-700 mbps over Wifi 5 or 6 (AC or AX) capable router. But would be below 100 mbps if you used 2.4 GHz band no matter what standards it supports. 5 GHz bands with relative proximity (up to 5m or so away from router) should run at 600-700 mbps, depending also on quality of the wifi card in computer. Make sure you're not connected to 2.4 GHz. That's all I can think of. If port was defective, it would not negotiate 1000 mbps connection. If cable was defective it would either run at lower speed or keep dropping connection. So these don't make much sense, especially as technician's computer could do full 1 Gbps. Not sure any of above helps. Note you should use Speedtest app, not website for testing over 100 mbps. Website isn't accurate.

There were some lower end laptops and AIO PCs of several brands that installed 100 mbps network cards in them for a couple of years to cut cost and recognise most used Wifi anyway and wouldn't notice. But Your your network card does seem to be of Gigabit variety already, from name. Now if you wanted to test external one, do NOT buy anything that comes with USB-A (you know the big USB plug), but only USB-C, provided your computer has USB-C socket. Most of USB-A only work in 100 mbps speed. Alternatively, you could try to uninstall and reinstall the drivers for network card. It's of course handy if you can connect with Wifi while you're removing Ethernet adapter drivers, to have ability to download the new ones. Let us know how it goes and what comes out of it.

This was just caught on camera today at Montpellier, France. Finally a decent quality photo of a thirsty plane taking a sip after landing...

I've online ordered some "front lip" whatever that is, for 250 baht. Just got some 2 pieces of plastic BUT NO CAR! WHAT am I going to do with these plastic <deleted>?!!! Utterly misleading ad! 1 star! Kidding...

BTS I think never had one. There were just 15 or 30 trip passes. MRT used to have monthly pass but I think that's now gone for a few years already as well. The systems are not connected so there's no card that works on both systems. There was Mangmoom (spider) card in the works some years back that was supposed to come one card for all transport... but from what I can see, that didn't get anywhere. If you have a contactless credit or debit card like VISA Wave, you can use that to pay when entering and exiting both BTS and MRT, but otherwise you'd need separate cards. And Airport Link has separate one as well. And buses have separate also... This ain't Hong Kong ???? But for final and definitive answer - let's wait for Crossy's take. That's the only one you can trust on train topics in Bangkok...

From linked article: Entry into Thailand for foreign travellers will be the same as existed before the start of 2020 with just a passport and immigration check-in on arrival Oh cool! That also means the return of "You in Thailand too long"? Let's see if the number of "refused entry" reports starts spiking from next week on...

Should have been a photo of a mattress. Duck down...

From linked article: The rehabilitation plan is being managed by former President and also former Energy Minister – Piyasavasti Amranand, Pornchai Thiravej, Kraisorn Baramee-Huaychai, Siri Jirapongphan and Chansin Treenuchagron. Surprised they let Piyasavasti anywhere near THAI. Last time he was president of it, that was the only time in ages airline was profitable, but then he cut all the benefits of freeloading VIPs so he was promptly removed. Must show desperation and guess that the moment TG is back in green, he'll be promptly replaced by someone who can sink it with VIP benefits again. You can't expect any "do you know who I am" to actually pay 1st class tickets for the whole family shopping trip to Europe, do you?

Reported in some European media is that the prices of flights out of Russia have skyrocketed and all seats taken for several days, with price from Moscow to Dubai exceeding 300k Rubles, following the mobilisation announcement. For most Russians that's apparently half a year of salary. Most tickets bought are one way. I can attach link but it's not in English... Googled several articles in English, so putting Associated Press one in link below. Not 100% identical, but should do... https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-fleeing-mobilization-dbe01d0c9be45a8c479565501a2a8f32 Decided to leave this post anyway, although I now see a video a few posts up about the same thing...